“Why do I have to pay money to play Webkinz when I played it for free when I was a kid?”
As many people who played the game years ago are re-discovering their childhood fandom, this is a common complaint posted on social media. However, while it may have seemed to some that they were getting access to the game for free, in reality, they were not.
When Webkinz.com launched in 2005, the only way to play on the site was by registering a code that came attached to the plush pet they were adopting onto their account. Once a code was registered, the player could play for one full year from the date they adopted that pet. At the end of that year, the account became locked until another code was registered during a new pet adoption. An important side note is that multiple adoptions NEVER “stacked” multiple years of membership. So, adopting 10 pets on the same day only ever gave 1 year of membership—not 10 years.
Once the “Webkinz craze” hit around 2007, with so many new plush pets flying off the shelves and players’ collections constantly growing, most kids never got locked out of their account. Basically, they were continually adopting so many pets that their membership never ran out.
In 2009, once plush sales began to decline from their meteoric peak, Ganz introduced Deluxe Membership as a new way to subscribe to the Webkinz game without having to constantly purchase physical plush toys. While this form of membership came with many bonuses like monthly gifts and eStore Points for special items, the amount and variety of bonuses added to Deluxe Memberships has steadily increased over the years, while the fee has essentially remained the same.
In 2012, Webkinz transformed its membership structure to a “Freemium” model. While Deluxe and Full Membership basically remained the same, once those subscriptions ran out, players were no longer locked out of their accounts. Instead, they could continue as a free player, with limited access to certain items and features. Kids that wanted to create a new account could also for the first time adopt a free pet instead of registering a code. This is the membership model that Webkinz still uses today.
Want to know what all the differences are between being a Free Player, a Full Member, and a Deluxe Member? We created a handy list which you can see here.
Do YOU remember the days when the only way to play Webkinz was to purchase a plush toy? And what would you like me to report on next? Let me know in the comments below!
Will we ever be able to convert kinzcash to ganz estore points? I have millions in kinz cash on both my Deluxe accounts but can’t spend it at the eStore…
Unfortunately, no–we won’t be offering a way to transfer KinzCash to eStore Points. We use eStore Point purchases to help pay for keeping the site up and running.
Steve, my children and grandchildren have a total of six accounts, one of them deluxe. We have been members/players since 2007. I think you did an excellent job of explaining matters in your above report. NIcely handled. On a different note, is anyone familiar with issues using a chromebook to play? It cuts off the bottom of certain pages such as the wheel of the month and we are unable to click the spin button. It also does it on the spin button for the wheel on vacation island. Zooming in or out doesn’t help because the bottom of the page is still green and renders you unable to see the button you need to push. Has anyone else found a way around this?
Have you tried zooming out before logging in? With the last maintenance, i had to set my browser to 80%, but I think it’s more a chrome issue, not ww. It’s like the page got elongated and the dock would cover 1/4 of the page. More than half the clubhouse door was hidden behind it. Hope that works for you too!
We remember purchasing plush toys in order to play back in 2007. For your next topic, please tell how to reach customer service. Still playing……
The best way to reach Customer Support is through email. For most Webkinz-related issues, please use: webkinzsupport@ganz.com. For Deluxe and eStore issues, please use: ganzestorecs@ganz.com.
Emails are reviewed by our Customer Support team from Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm EST (not including holidays).
might wanna add that some of the “bonuses” deluxe members now get used to be available for regular players. that’s the reason that people complain about not being able to do what they used to on webkinz for free.
yeah they deliberately skimmed over that because who cares about actually making a convincing argument am i right
I have been playing webkinz for many years. However just discovered the Ganzworld. Recently It will only let me log in if i’m using the user safari. CROME DOES NOT WORK. However crome works better on webkinz though. Please fix this!
You may need to enable flash player
Thank you, Steve. You’ve given me something to think about here. I’m seriously thinking about becoming a Deluxe Member on just one of my accounts. (I have 4 small ones) I don’t mind if a couple of my accounts go into Free mode, as plushy pets with codes are sometimes hard to find, but I do wish that you would allow Free mode pets to mail items back and forth. With so many items in our docks, and with it getting harder and harder to sort through them, it would be nice to be able to “mail” items to our Free accounts for storage purposes. That would clear up our docks and allow us to get and keep more items. I don’t even mind that you can only send 3 items per day. Every little bit would help. I know you and Ganz probably think that’s a bad idea, but I think it would be a great thing to do. Just give Free accounts the privilege to use the mail in Webkinz World. And, thank you so much for this info about Webkinz World! :-)
Deluxe is worth it…half off Jan 1st ….best time to get one or two ;)
I was sort of curious about this.. Thanks for clearing it up! It’s funny seeing all of these different Webkinz login pages too. I remember all of them, I’m pretty sure, especially that fall one! Oh, look and there’s webkinz friends! I wish I played that at the time. Heh, and “the new game DiceKinz!” That’s funny.. =P I’m having more fun just looking at the pictures than reading the actual article.. XD
oh yes I do. in fact it was my adult girlfriends who gave our son his first webkinz pet that we registered b/c both they AND their children loved them (I had purchased a koala with him when he was younger, which may have put the time frame in that original year, but silly me had no idea what to do with a “code” so it was a few years until the on-line craze caught us…fast forward…my son loved playing and buying webkinz and I carry many a fond memory of webkinz outings…in fact, after a while I started looking over his shoulder while he played on-line & had decorating ideas of my own, so I would occasionally get to dabble just a bit on his account (but just a bit ;)…fast forward again and our son grew up (it happens!) and moved on to other on-line and other games. Oh my, that was not the end of webkinz in our home, but yet another chapter, as I officially took over the account (and then later the account of one of those “friends” from my story above) and now have probably one of the premier collections of everything webkinz, trying to capture all the original real items as I could, from trading cards to clothing to jewery, t-shirts, and figurines. and yes, for those of you who think webkinz was ever free, don’t be silly–they are one of the most brilliant marketeers ever. THANK YOU for finding ways to carry on this wonderful world. after ten years, btw, I finally got a box with a gift to choose from the academy (and have since gotten a second–in real life I had earned an undergraduate and law school degree in far less time!) the day I find the on-line version of the dark orange and green polo-style shirt w/ while collar will be my coup d’état, as I foolishly sold it one day before I started saving Everything ;) for the record, our son still keeps his original cheeky cat (which I was able to purchase new w/ tag after it had been retired. so isn’t that a sweet ending to this very long story. addendum: in my closet is my plush I have kept–the flying pig, for is there anything better than reaching the time “when pigs fly?!? best to all new and old fans & hold onto your webkinz memories, whatever they may be. -k. p.s. to anyone else who had the original dicekinz packs saved in their docks, I mourn with you as they were taken away from us, replaced by something else far from what we lost…rip.
oops that would be ‘white’ collar ;) k.
How sweet!!! ~Ashleigh Ball and Lyric
Why has all my Moneyz disappeared? I had 15,000 or so and now I have zero. I didn’t spend it.
That has happened to us before. Fortunately when we logged back in it showed back up. Hope that happens for you ;)
I remember this all. I started the end of 2007. I love Webkinz and how it evolved. Question-The Doctor Quack drinks I make can’t be fed to my pets to the left or when I feed it directly to the pet in their room. Am I doing something wrong or is it not working? Have around 6o ready to feed the pets.
We’re still looking into why the Dr. Quack Super Smoothies don’t work sometimes.